Tuesday, 31 October 2017

ZANU PF Mashonaland women’s league members yesterday besieged
the party’s provincial offices in Chinhoyi accusing their leaders of stealing
broiler chicks donated to various women’s empowerment groups by First Lady
Grace Mugabe.

Targeted by the placard-waving mob were women’s league
acting provincial chairperson Angeline Muchemenyi and administration secretary
Joice Makazhu, who stand accused of theft of day-old chicks, failing to
administer the affairs of the league and taking instructions from beleaguered
Zanu PF central committee member and Kadoma businessman Jimayi Muduvuri.

Muchemenyi was caught off-guard by the seemingly
spontaneous demonstration as she had called the meeting at the provincial head
office to discuss the on-going biometric voter registration (BVR) and the
ruling party’s upcoming extraordinary December congress.

The meeting was attended by senior Zanu PF Mashonaland West
members from all three wings, namely main body, women’s league and youth
league.

“Their action is null and void because I remain the
chairwoman of the province. In fact, I was the one who called this meeting to
talk about the BVR exercise and preparations for the December congress. Those
calling for my ouster belong to the Lacoste faction,” she charged.

Muchemenyi accused her deputy Mary Phiri of being
over-ambitious and engineering the demonstration to push her out of office. Some of the placards read: “Muduvuri is the chair of Mash
West women’s league” and “Jimayi stop funding confusion.”

However, Phiri maintained a petition had been tendered to
the provincial executive which had since endorsed it, a development that could
culminate in Muchemenyi’s removal from office.

Newly-appointed Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs
minister Webster Shamu and provincial chairman Ephraim Chengeta both declined
to comment on the event, but central committee member and Zvimba Senator
Caroline Mugabe reiterated the meeting was convened to discuss the BVR exercise
and the congress preparations.

She declared nothing had changed as Muchemenyi remained the
women’s league boss.— NewsAnchor